SwimSwam’s Top 100 For 2025: Women’s #20-11

After an unprecedented year of racing that included the Olympics sandwiched between the Long Course and Short Course World Championships, it’s time to start releasing our fifth annual Top 100 list—check out last year’s rankings here.

As in previous years, we’ve taken a statistically driven approach reliant primarily upon world rankings and medals won at the Olympics, and to a lesser extent, Short Course Worlds and the 2024 Worlds in Doha. We’ve also accounted for things like potential, future medal opportunities, injuries, and versatility. Long-course is weighted more heavily than short-course, though performance potential in both formats is factored into our rankings.

After a large contingent of Russian and Belarusian swimmers raced at Short Course Worlds in December, those swimmers have started to move back up the rankings after they were low on the lists last year due to lack of competition.

We’ll be breaking down the top 100 into multiple installments, so keep an eye out as they’re released.

These lists are, by nature, subjective. If you disagree, leave your thoughts/ranks in the comments.

Thank you to Daniel Takata for his help with the data and compiling the rankings. Madeline Folsom contributed to this report.

Women’s Rankings:

• #100 – #91
• #90 – #81
• #80 – #71
• #70 – #61
• #60 – #51
• #50 – #41
• #40 – #31
• #30 – #21
• #20 – #11
• #10 – #1

#20: Claire Curzan, USA (2024 Rank: 25) – In one sense, Curzan had a phenomenal 2024, winning the first three individual world titles of her career, but from another perspective, she missed the U.S. Olympic team after qualifying for Tokyo as a 16-year-old. After one year at Stanford, Curzan announced her transfer to the University of Virginia in the summer of 2023, and although she didn’t begin racing for the college team until this past fall, the training in Charlottesville paid dividends in the long course pool throughout 2024. That kicked off with the World Championships in Doha, where she swept the women’s 50 back (27.43), 100 back (58.29) and 200 back (2:05.77), added a silver medal in the 100 fly (56.61), and won two more relay medals for six in total. Those times ranked her 4th, 6th, 5th and 9th in the world last year, respectively. At the Olympic Trials, Curzan was in the hunt for a berth in the women’s 200 back, but ended up one spot shy in 3rd (2:06.34), while she was 4th in the 100 fly and 8th in the 100 back. Based on her times from Doha, only the 200 back would’ve been fast enough to make the team, so it remains a tall order for Curzan to make the U.S. team due to the sheer depth in the backstroke events. However, she’s seemingly picking up momentum in Virginia, which should make her a favorite to qualify for Worlds in the 200 back and be in podium position, and any improvement in the 100 back could see her in a similar spot.

#19: Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania (2024 Rank: 14) – Meilutyte’s career resurgence continued in 2024, as she reaffirmed her status as the best female 50 breaststroker in the world, winning the LC world title in Doha and then defending her SC world title in Melbourne, coming within two one-hundredths of her world record at the latter meet (28.39). The 27-year-old wasn’t at her best in the 100-meter event last year, however, as she failed to earn a second swim in Doha and then missed the final at both the Olympics (11th) and SC Worlds (13th). After getting down to 1:04-mid territory in 2023, Meilutyte was unable to break 1:06 in the LC 100 breast last year, so it remains to be seen if she’ll get back to medal contention there. However, in the 50, she remains the best in the world until proven otherwise.

#18: Anastasiya Kirpichnikova, France (2024 Rank: 45) – After finding plenty of international success representing Russia in 2021, Kirpichnikova has reestablished herself as one of the world’s best distance swimmers since changing her sporting citizenship to France in 2023. She placed 5th in the women’s 1500 free at the 2024 World Championships and followed up by winning silver in the event at the Olympics, producing a massive lifetime best and French Record of 15:40.35 to rank #4 all-time. She also split 8:19.63 in the 800 free to the feet in the 1500 final—faster than she went in the individual 800, where she placed 7th in 8:22.80—which ranked 8th in the world last year and narrowly missed Laure Manaudou‘s French Record of 8:18.80 from 2007. In the 1500, Kirpichnikova ranked #2 behind Katie Ledecky, and given that she’s only 24, Kirpichnikova could be a perennial medalist in the mile if she finds consistency. At SC Worlds, she finished 4th in the 1500 and 6th in the 800, well outside of her best times from 2021 (8:04.65/15:18.30), which in the 1500, was the former world record.

#17: Alex Walsh, USA (2024 Rank: 17) – Despite her disqualification in the Olympic final, Walsh has established herself as one of the best 200 IMers in the world. The 2022 world champion won silver in the event at the Tokyo Olympics and 2023 World Championships, and initially touched in the bronze medal position in Paris before she was DQed for an illegal back-to-breast turn. Walsh didn’t race for more than four months from the Olympics to the Short Course World Championships while undergoing a meniscus procedure, but showed her level when she resurfaced in December in Budapest, producing some of the fastest swims in history en route to silver in the 200 IM (2:02.65) and bronze in the 200 breast (2:16.83) while also leading off the world record breaking 4×200 free relay. The key for Walsh moving forward is establishing herself on the international stage in the long course 200 breast, having moved on from the 400 IM, to give her a second top-tier event to combine with the 200 IM. Last year, she ranked 4th in the world in the 200 IM (2:07.45) and 6th in the 200 breast (2:22.38). With Lilly King inching toward retirement, Walsh is in position to overtake her as the #2 option in the U.S. behind training partner Kate Douglass.

#16: Lani Pallister, Australia (2024 Rank: 27) – Pallister showed off her freestyle range last year, ranking 5th in the world in the 1500 (15:53.79), 6th in the 400 (4:01.75), 800 (8:18.46) and 11th in the 200 free (1:55.57) in 2024. Despite qualifying to swim three individual events at the Olympics, Pallister only ended up racing the 800, placing 6th, after dropping the 400 from her schedule prior to the Games, and then being out of the 1500 due to COVID. However, she bounced back and helped the Aussie women win gold in the 4×200 free relay, and would’ve been an individual medal threat if she was fully healthy in Paris. The 22-year-old went 8:15 in the 800 free in late 2023, and has been as fast as 15:48 in the 1500 in 2022. She showed off her ability at SC Worlds, winning gold in the 800 free (8:01.95) and silver in the 400 free (3:53.73), and should be a prime medal contender in multiple events at the 2025 LC Worlds after she wasn’t at 100% at the Olympics.

#15: Katharine Berkoff, USA (2024 Rank: 18) – Berkoff is one of the fastest backstrokers of all-time, but finds herself competing during the same era as Kaylee McKeown and Regan Smith, making major championship titles hard to come by. Berkoff broke 58 seconds in the 100 back four times last year, going as fast as 57.83 at the U.S. Olympic Trials to rank #4 all-time, and culminated things by winning bronze in the event in Paris. She also won gold after swimming a prelim leg of the U.S. women’s medley relay, and was on fire in December at Short Course Worlds, winning silver in the 50 back (25.61) and 100 back (54.93) behind Smith with some of the fastest swims ever. Now 24, Berkoff has raised her level every year, but so have McKeown and Smith. Regardless, she’s a favorite to medal in the 100 back behind those two for the foreseeable future, and she could be in the hunt for gold in the 50 back at LC Worlds given the level she showed in 2022 (27.12 at World Trials).

#14: Isabel Gose, Germany (2024 Rank: 34) – Gose is a rangy freestyler who has been consistently getting over since breaking out at the Tokyo Olympics. The German native was 6th in the 400 free and 11th in the 200 free in Tokyo, and after a steady rise that included winning the European title in the 400 free in 2022, broke through to win the first Olympic, LC World and SC World medals of her career in 2024. The 22-year-old won silver in the 800 and bronze in the 400 and 1500 free in Doha, and then snagged bronze in the 1500 free with a breakout swim at the Olympics (15:41.16) while also finishing 5th in both the 400 free (4:02.14) and 800 free (8:17.82). She closed out the year by winning the SC world title in the 1500 free by five and a half seconds and added a silver in the 800 free. Gose is firmly in the medal hunt in the 400, 800 and 1500 free at LC Worlds, and should be favored for multiple golds at SC Euros in 2025.

#13: Katie Grimes, USA (2024 Rank: 16) – Grimes may not have taken off as much in the distance freestyle events as much as some may have expected coming out of her breakout Olympics in 2021, but she’s established herself as the second-best 400 IMer in the world among those who contest it in international competition. The American has won silver in the 400 IM behind Summer McIntosh at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, the Paris Olympics, and the 2024 SC World Championships. Grimes, who turned 19 in January, won silver in the 1500 free at the 2022 Worlds, but placed 8th in 2023 (while winning bronze in the open water 10km) and then missed the final at the Olympics in 10th. Her fastest time last year was 15:57.31 from the SMOC in Mission Viejo in April, ranking her 7th in the world, while she ranked 9th in the world in the 800 free (8:21.51) and 11th in the 200 back (2:07.72) to go along with being 3rd in the 400 IM (4:32.45). Now at the University of Virginia, Grimes will be a swimmer to watch this year as she aims to find more consistency in her freestyle performances to go along with what she’s been able to consistently do in the 400 IM. We saw a positive sign at the SC World Championships in December, where she won bronze in the 800 free and swam a leg on the world record-breaking 4×200 free relay.

#12: Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong (2024 Rank: 10) – Haughey has consistently been a top-three to four swimmer in the world in the 100 and 200 free since the Tokyo Olympics, when she won silver in both events behind Australian powerhouses Emma McKeon and Ariarne Titmus. After missing the 2022 Worlds, Haughey won silver in the 100 free and was 4th in the 200 free at the 2023 World Championships, and then captured the first LC world title of her career in February 2024, topping the 200 free field in Doha. In Paris, Haughey landed on the podium in both events once again, earning bronze in the 100 free (52.33) and 200 free (1:54.55), both times that ranked her 5th in the world for 2024. The 27-year-old also won her third straight SC world title in the 200 free this past December, and promises to be a podium threat on the big stage in the 100 and 200 free moving forward.

#11: Evgeniia Chikunova, Russia (2024 Rank: 29) – Is Chikunova the best 200 breaststroker in the world? As the world record holder and the fastest woman in the world last year in long course, she has a pretty sound argument, though she was beaten head-to-head in her lone chance to race international competition. At SC Worlds, Kate Douglass beat Chikunova by more than two and a half seconds in the 200 breast final, and the Russian fell short of the podium in the 100 breast. However, she was the only woman sub-2:19 in the long course event last year, clocking 2:18.98 at the Russian Swimming Cup after setting the world record at 2:17.55 in 2023. The 20-year-old also ranked 3rd in the world in 2024 in the 100 breast (1:05.11), and after her appearance at SC Worlds in December, she’ll presumably be in the mix at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, where she’ll have a showdown with Douglass for gold in the 200 breast and a shot at a medal in the 100.